It was another boring night of work for Wade. He worked for one of the biggest indoor theme parks as a security guard, but most of his time wasn’t spent protecting the area or staying vigilant, rather he would usually have to fix cameras or collect lost items. In the rare cases where he would do actual security work it was usually getting teens who hid and waited during closing time or a child who had gotten stuck inside the building
Right now he was balancing on a ladder with a camera in his face, it was the main one for the Trampolazium and his manager had asked him to fix it as soon as possible.
He finished fixing the camera, but just before he stepped down the ladder “HEY HOW YOU DOING WADE!!!” A yell broke the silence causing him to slip off the ladder falling onto a nearby trampoline and flailing around like an idiot.
“Jesus Jenny, can’t I get a break from you once?” Wade asked her through his walkie-talkie, still laying on the trampoline.
“No can do, you know how much I enjoy a good scare.” Jenny responded back excitedly, she was one of the newer security guards and he was assigned to watch over her. Only problem was she was an overexcited college girl who couldn’t resist any chance to explore the areas or scare the hell out of him. “ Anyway it looks like Olivia needs our help again at the LazerTag, meet you there?”
Wade sighed, “Fine, but you better get there before her.” He dragged himself up and started collecting the supplies, carrying them past the foam pits and high jump areas into the employee hallways.
“Hi Wade, got the camera fixed?” Mason asked him politely. Mason was a young kid still in high school, she had gotten this janitorial job in order to start saving up money, and surprisingly enjoyed it. This was mainly due to how he got free tickets to the park every paycheck as a youth incentive, and she had used them a bunch to either just relax or hang out with friends.
“Yep, I’m off to go help out Olivia, it seems she ran into another problem at the LazerTag attraction.” Wade told her, packing the ladder and toolbox in the nearby cabinet. He turned back around to leave only to notice a weird smile on Mason’s face.
“Ooh, Olivia, I wonder why she only ever asks you for help.” She told him sarcastically, looking towards him with a knowing smile on her face.
While Wade did have a mostly mundane security job, that didn’t mean he was lax. He had a well trained body and frequently worked out during his off hours, he also enjoyed the outdoors spending much more time hiking, biking, or walking along nature trails.
Wade knew that Olivia had a crush on him, she had given plenty of hints to him, and while he had not responded back. It wasn’t due to a lack of interest per se, but rather he had been mulling over that he would be working with his girlfriend, which would cause very awkward moments if they ever broke up. He had finally worked up the nerve to ask her out, though hadn’t found a good moment for it yet.
“Yes, I know Olivia has a crush on me… I’m just waiting for the right moment.“ Wade told her, shyly looking away.
“Oh don’t you give me that!” Mason almost yelled back at him, a glare in her eyes, “ She’s been giving you these hints for months, you better ask her out TONIGHT!” She finished raising her voice.
“Okay, Okay, can you come with me then? I’ll need you to get Jenny out of the way.” He asked her, hand on the doorknob.
Mason smiled, giving him two thumbs up, “You can count on me champ!” Before quickly pushing past him, rushing from the room, “I’ll meet you guys there in 30 okay, I got to take care of something.” She told him running down the hall.
“Got it!” Wade yelled back, even though she was already gone. He slowly walked out of the room and away from the Trampolazium. He walked out to the Minigolf area, it was one of the attractions between him and the Arcade. Stepping through the plastic foam worlds he looked outside briefly at some flashing lights over the hills and sighed again.
‘ Dammit, it seems like I forgot about a concert.’
The owners built the theme park on the outskirts of town inside an unfinished mall, this caused them to frequently be able to listen to concerts and even watch them through the cameras if they were lucky enough. Wade always liked to know about them beforehand so he could prepare some snacks or even take the day off, but it looked like he missed this one.
‘ Seems they’re just starting now though, I can’t hear any music.’
He kept walking now, but was surprised at how he still couldn’t hear anything even after fully crossing the Minigolf courses. He knew the concert wasn’t over since the spotlights kept flashing, but didn’t think much of it. ‘ Eh, I’ll just watch through the security cam footage later.’
He exited the area and started to make his way through the Funtime Land quickly, while during the day was a very nice playground/park area, where parents would be able to relax at an adjacent cafe, at night it looked almost abandoned. There were also rumors about fake children, who would lure in employees with their voices of excitement only to attack them. The rumors were fake of course, it turned out that a kid had just gotten spooked by a security guard and knocked him out cold with her backpack, yet the area still gave Wade the creeps.
A voice came up from the walkie-talkie, “ Hey Wade, I notice you, Jenny and Mason are headed towards the LazerTag area, any reason why?” This was his manager Richard, he had been working for the Park for years and was nearing retirement. He had a nice head or hair and a thick beard, though it was gray now and started turning white recently, he was happily married to his wife of 30 years and they frequently hosted barbecues at their house for the employees.
“Olivia asked us for help again, but when Mason heard I was going to ask Olivia out on a date she joined in.” Wade told him, Richard knew that he was asking her out today, mainly due to the fact that he had allowed the relationship, Richard was Olivia’s older brother of almost 12 years and in order to not make things tense at work Wade had asked him a couple days ago.
“Oh, you're doing that now? I thought you would do it after the shift was over.” Richard asked him, you could practically hear the smile he had on his face.
“No, I had only decided I would do it tonight. Anyway is something the problem? “ Wade asked, while Richard was very kind outside of shift hours, during a shift he almost never spoke through the walkie-talkie, though he would welcome them into the security room and chat there, if they ever came by.
“No Wade, I’ve just got a bit of a bad feeling tonight… But that doesn’t matter, you better treat my little sister right.” After hearing that Wade thought he could see Richard in front of him, a fire in both of his eyes.
Wade took a deep breath, he had finally made it to the entrance of the LazerTag area and was right in front of the door, he was still nervous about asking Olivia out. ‘Come on Wade, You can’t keep on being an idiot like this.’ Shaking his head he opened the door and started walking through the attraction.
It was styled similarly to a space station, with some areas being small corridors, and others being open sections for the players to run about and enjoy. Olivia usually met them at the control room so he headed there. Accidentally running into in the process Jenny, who darted out of a nearby hallway in front of him in a fast sprint.
He smiled, while she always slacked off a bit she was a hard worker when it mattered, and tried her best to never be late. She hadn’t noticed Wade and was now out of his sight, still running rapidly to the control room. He didn’t speed up or call out to her and just slowly continued his walk.
Wade entered into the control room and was immediately greeted by the sight of Olivia and Jenny talking nearby, “ I was so surprised when you came in, my god charging through the doorway like that young lady, almost made me scream.”
“Sorry, I was just,” Jenny was trying to respond back between deep breaths. “ trying to get here in time. “ Jenny was just able to get her breath under control and looked back only to immediately frown, “Dammit, I thought you wouldn’t be here for a while.”
Olivia turned around and smiled at Wade. Olivia had curly red hair, fair skin, and a nice face with some slight freckles, she was also much shorter than Wade standing about 5’1 in height. “Good to see you, Wade.” She said politely, still smiling. “ I thought only Jenny was coming to help, but I’m glad you’re here as well.”
“I had just finished fixing the camera when you asked for help, though Mason is also on her way, she just had something to do.” Wade told her, scratching the back of his head looking away.
“Perfect, I need all the help I can get with this.” Olivia told him, frowning slightly now. She started leading them towards a pile of LazerTag guns and outfits, they were all tied together being knotted up into a massive mess. “Apparently a couple of the teens did this during the last game, I know I can’t get them undone without some help, but we should be able to get this done in an hour with your help.”
“We’ll try to help out the best we can.” Wade told her sitting on the floor. They spent the next hour just talking and slowly untying the mess of wires, cords, and body plates. Once Mason showed up they started to get into a rhythm, with Wade and Jenny handing the freed outfits over to Mason and Olivia who cleaned and sorted them into their correct spots.
Once the whole pile was sorted out, Mason had Jenny help her carry them back to the main entrance leaving Wade with Olivia. “So, Olivia…” he slowly started. “Yes, go on Wade.” She pushed excitedly.
“ I was wondering if you maybe, wanted to say, go on a date sometime soon, maybe next Weekend?” He asked her, looking for a response.
She was shocked at first staying motionless, but quickly became radiant, smiling excessively, “YES! Ehm, I mean yes, I’ll go on a date with you, do you have any place in mind?”
“I was thinking maybe we could go have a picnic at the lake, I’ll bring some sandwiches, maybe some cookies and a bottle or two of wine. Does that sound good?” He asked her, trying to hide his smile at her acceptance.
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Olivia brushed her hair out of her face, trying to calm down. “ That sounds great Wade, I’ll meet you there and after that maybe we could head back to your place.” She told him, blushing intensely now.
Before Wade could respond back Richard started contacting him through the walkie-talkie, “Wade, I need you to head to the security office immediately, be sure to bring Olivia with you. I’ll tell you why once you get here.” His voice sounded tense now, nervous almost.
Wade immediately stopped thinking of the date, “ Sorry, it looks like we’re being cut short. Do you need me to carry you?” Wade didn’t want to take a long time getting there, he knew that Richard wouldn’t interrupt them unless this was very important.
“I’ll be fine, let's go.” She told him, getting serious as well, she knew this was serious as the last time she had been called to the security office was when a group of children had run off causing them hours of trouble finding them.
They both left immediately running towards the security office, meeting Jenny and Mason on the way, both getting the message as well, they kept running through the different attractions and entered only to see almost all the night shift employees here.
Richard nodded at them once they entered and started explaining, “ Everyone we’ve got an issue, as some of you have noticed I called everyone here, that’s because several of our co-workers have vanished. Andrew, Betty, Charlie, Carlos, Dorathy, Edward, and Henry have all gone missing. “
This was a shock for them, they had about 30 people working the night shift, so for seven of them to have gone missing, and all from different sections of the park, was a big deal. “Wade, Jenny, Neil, and Zoe I want you to head out and search the park one attraction at a time, everyone else I need you to stay here, we have no idea how they are going missing nor do we know if someone is out there. “
Wade and the other guards grabbed batons, tasers and even handguns. While they had never used them before they all were trained and knew bringing them along was necessary here.
“I didn’t see where Andrew, Betty or Charlie went missing, but Carlos had disappeared in the Arcade. He was taking a break and was inside playing and disappeared. “
“Got it, we’ll report in if we find anything.” Neil told him, signaling Wade and the other guards to follow him. They headed out, running once again through the halls. This was much more serious now and was probably the biggest incident the theme park had ever faced.
Their footsteps echoed loudly through the silent attractions, all of them lifeless and still, with each of them scanning the areas, looking for anything that could be out of place.
They eventually made it to the arcade, most of the machines were off, but one section had their music ringing and games running. They slowly moved through the walls of machines heading towards the extra light and sounds. They each were on alert, constantly searching for any sign of Carlos, but there was nothing outside the machine. Neil and Wade both got on either side of the entrance, listening for any sounds, but found nothing, both counted to three and flung open the curtains stepping inside.
While the machine looked perfectly normal on the outside, that wasn’t the case for the inside. One of the cannons and the wheel of the machine were both gone, looking as if the machine parts were carefully dismantled and taken away. The cushions on the right side were also gone, similarly looking as if they had never been installed in. At the left side of the machine there was a glass of Lemonade along with an employee pass, it was Carlos’.
“Richard, we found where Carlos was, but there is something strange here. Parts of the machine are gone.” Wade voiced in, Neil was shining his flashlight around the booth looking for any other details.
“Gone, what do you mean gone?” Richard asked, his voice confused.
“It’s as if they were never installed, ever the screws holding the pieces in are gone, but we did find Carlos’ pass, you and I both know there's no way to leave the park without it.” Wade told him, picking up the pass and pocketing it. He stepped back outside where Jenny and Zoe had been searching for any other discrepancies, but both shook their heads at Wade, they had found nothing. “Richard, do you know where anyone else went missing?” Neil asked, him stepping out the machine.
Before Richard could answer them a bright flash erupted near Jenny, it blinded them for a few seconds, but once they could see they were shocked, Jenny had disappeared and the arcade machine she was leaning on was also gone, it’s imprint still on the floor. “ Are you guys okay? The cameras just deactivated!”
Shellshocked by the event, both Wade and Neil were stunned, Zoe responded back quietly, “Jenny’s gone, we were blinded by a sudden flash and she vanished, they also took an arcade machine. “
“WHAT!” Richard erupted through the walkie-talkie, “Nobody was around any of you, and we’ve all been watching you this entire time, until the cameras were shut off there was nobody in sight. You’re telling me in a few seconds they not only kidnapped an employee, stole a massive arcade machine, but also escaped the room!” Richard was in a rage now, this had just gotten even more dangerous. Before the kidnappings were done against people who were completely alone, the fact that they did all this means they’re dealing with a group of extremely dangerous and skilled people, rather than just a single kidnapper.
“All three of you, get back here now we can’t los-.” But Richard was suddenly cut off.
“Richard! Richard, come in!” Neil was screaming now, Wade and Zoey had already taken off on a run to the security office, but before they could get far they got a response. “ They took Jeremy, we got a flash of light in here and he was suddenly gone, the coffee maker is also gone for some reason, it’s as if they’re mocking us. “
Zoe looked as if she had a realization, “ They’re taking us in Alphabetical Order, the next target should be John.” All three of them started running towards the security office, They could make it in time if they hurried. They bolted from the arcade room and kept running fast, no longer caring about possible surprises or hidden attackers.
Eventually the trio made it to the office, but before they could enter another bright light flashed through the gaps of the door. They quickly entered looking for any possible harm, yet everyone was perfectly fine, everyone except John.
Richard showed them his hands, on it was a handcuff, with the cord cut neatly and cleaning, “I handcuffed myself to him once you told us, but it didn’t do any good. They still took him somehow and even grabbed a couple monitors this time.”
Wade looked towards the wall, what once was perfectly covered with monitors displaying the security feed now had a decent gap on it, two monitors were completely gone as well as the gear holding them to the wall.
Several of the employees were now getting extremely worried and panicking, the fact that three more people had been taken now wasn’t good, only 17 of them were left and several who knew that they would be next or soon were panicking. One, a teen named Karen, had already bolted from the room, they knew they were next in line and had started running for the nearest exit, unfortunately she had left her pass inside the security office trapping her in the building.
Richard stepped up, “Everyone don’t panic, if we run off and separate we’ll all just be picked off easier. I’ll head out with Neil and find Karen, the rest of you stay here, once we get back we’re setting this room into lockdown and calling the cops.” He quickly left with Neil right behind him, most had calmed down, but Kyle was still panicking, deciding to lock himself in the restroom, in there the only way in or out was through the small grate in the ceiling, something even a child couldn’t fit through.
For now the entire group mostly sat in silence, they were all worried about what could be happening, each dreading who would be next. It was now a simple matter of counting and you’d know how many more people would be gone before it was your turn. Wade was staring at the bathroom door silently, waiting for the flash to once again claim another target, by now he thought that nobody could reasonably do this.
Wade eventually saw light flash from the door again and stood up, knocking at the door. “Kyle, are you still there? Kyle, answer me now.” Silence was the only thing that came from the restroom, the others had realized what was going on and fear now completely set in, before there was a way to at least explain it, but nobody could get in or out of that room without passing every single one of them. Wade kicked down the door and was greeted by another strange site, this time not only was a person gone, now the entire sink was gone, even weirder the water was properly blocked off to prevent leaks.
“Richard, come back. Kyle is gone.” Zoe spoke through the mic on the desk. Others started to panic and run off, some tried calling the police, but the lines were down for some reason. A few just sat down, wondering if they could even outrun this group or thing. Wade meanwhile, checked the entire bathroom, every corner, every tile, every speck looking for any possible sign of entry or exit, and besides some wood chips from his forced entry, yet there was nothing.
Richard and Neil finally came back to the office, and without speaking a single word activated the building lockdown. Nowhere in the mall was safe, but as long as the lockdown was in practice nobody would be able to get in or out.
“Everyone who’s still here, I want you to pick a buddy and lock hands, if you ever think for even a moment they’re about to be taken grab on as tight as you can.” Wade stepped back out and grabbed Olivia’s hand, compared to the others he and Olivia had known each other the longest and interacted most, she was the best choice.
“ As of now our only hope is one group lasting till morning, at that point we’ll be discovered and can get help. Until then I wish good luck to all of you.” With those words Richard took out a hammer and smashed the computer system, they could be rescued from outside now, but until the morning came they all were locked inside.
Each group split off running towards a different attraction, Olivia and Wade lost sight of the other groups as they all went their own way, prepared to barricade a particular area the best they could. They ran towards the FuntimeLand area, while it did have the rumor and creeped the both of them out, it also had something else, a stairwell leading towards the roof. While the door may have been locked as of now, It was a one way area, small and you could hear the echoes of people stepping through, they both knew that while it was the scariest place for them, it was also the safest.
Olivia and Wade did make a quick stop at the cafe before heading up, each grabbing some snacks, some cold drinks, and a sandwich or two. They were both starving as of now and knew the food would help to calm them.
The stairwell was well lit, and they both started climbing, still in silence until they were at the top. Olivia collapsed from the climbing, while Wade wiped sweat from his brow breathing hard and sat down looking towards the steps.
“It looks like we’re having the date now.” Olivia jokingly spoke, laying against the locked door.
Wade smiled, “ I guess we are, shame we don’t have that wine though.”
“Do you think the others are okay? I just… I’m worried.”
“I am as well, but I think, no they will be fine. Now let’s eat, we both need the energy.”
Their mood had lightened and they slowly ate, each just enjoying the meal they had selected and relaxing, getting a relaxing break from everything which had happened these past few hours. From the excitement of finally dating, to the nervousness and terror of these kidnappers, both were happy to just sit and relax with the other, calming down extensively.
They were leaning on each other now, sitting against the door and trying to relax once again.
“So, after we had gone to the park, what did you want to do? “ Olivia was smiling cheekily with her eyes shut.
Wade decided to muster up some of the last remaining courage of the night, standing up and helping her to stand against the door, “This” he kissed her and she happily kissed back, but at that happy moment for this new couple light overtook them both. Wade fell forward landing on the hard ground. Both Olivia and the door to the outside were completely gone, the cold breeze blowing and the moonlight illuminating his surroundings.
He could see flashes of light going off everywhere, each second, each moment they would constantly shine through the night. The horrible light each taking another person to who knows where.
Wade was stunted, he didn’t even stand and just watched, there was no way to escape this, nowhere to hide, and nowhere to run. He knew that now. Wade eventually went back inside, slowly walking to the cafe and sitting down in one of the chairs, just waiting for his time to come.
He started to shine and just closed his eyes, he didn’t panic or scream, and just waited to turn to nothingness, yet it never came. Opening his eyes Wade was now in a perfectly white room.